European Superleague: what do you think

Every once in a while the idea of a european superleague comes up. Taking the best teams in europe and putting them in one league, playing against each other every week. I think that it will start to be discussed for frequently and more seriously as time moves on, espacially with leagues in countries with huge populations like brazil, the US and china, that threaten to challenge europe's supremacy. What are your opinions: do you want it to happen? will it happen? if it does happen, what do you thing the format should be?

This is an idea I had a while back. As I note here, I don't want a Superleague, or even what I outline here really. This is a hypothetical in a scenario where such a competition was forced into existence. As such, it's a system designed to give the big clubs some of what they might try to leverage, while also forcing them to put their money where their mouth is and prove their merit:

Not enamoured with the idea of a Superleague, but as it's come up often and looks like a possibility, I came up with the following system (sorry to cross-post, but I put this in another thread and it seemed to get lost there):

The competition will be sixteen clubs and in the first the participants would be the top sixteen ranked coefficient clubs. The league would replace the CL for those teams, though the CL would still run as usual for everyone else. More about that later. Teams would also participate in their domestic league.

The format would be as follows:

2 groups of 8 (seeded), playing each other twice (14 games - same as current CL).

The top 3 of each group enter playoffs at the end of the season. The playoffs would be conducted at a neutral "host" nation and the format would be:

First round:
Group winners get a bye to Semis.

Second placed team form Group A plays Third from B and vice-versa.

Semi Final:

Group winner from Group A plays winner of "Group B 2nd vs Group A 3rd".
Group winner from Group B plays winner of "Group A 2nd vs Group B 3rd".

Final is self explanatory.

Now onto the juicy stuff - Relegation and Promotion!

To keep the league competitive, there would also be a pro/rel with a playoff which would work as follows:

Bottom team from each group is automatically relegated and replaced the following season with the UCL finalists.

Positions six and seven from each group would playoff in a system that would also contain the three highest coefficient clubs currently outside the SL and not already qualified via the UCL. The final playoff place would go to the the fourth placed coefficient team or Europa League winner if they are not already a coefficient top 4 team. If the latter is the case, they become the lowest ranked team.

The following playoff matches would then take place:

First Games:

Lower Tier (the loser of these games are eliminated from the playoffs and will not be in the SL next season, winner goes to second game):

This relegation system basically means that the two better placed league teams and higher Coeffs effectively have two opportunities to win/retain their spot in next years SL. The worse two league and Coeff teams effectively have to win two games in a row to retain/keep their spots.

The Champions League:

The likely drop in sponsorship interest would be partially subsidised by the likely revenue made by UEFA from the Superleague, allowing the competition to remain a lucrative one. Qualification would remain the same, with the spots vacated by SL participants filtering down to the other teams in the league. Coefficients based on national performance in this and the Europa League would continue to determine # of entrants from each league. A team "relegated" from the SL would have to qualify for one of these comps as usual and meet the above criteria to gain entry back into the contest. I'm not sure best how to deal with these teams Coefficients ranking as freezing it while there in the SL might just result in them qualifying for SL promotional playoffs the following year. Maybe it should also be a requirement that entry to the promotional playoffs that year requires a certain position in the domestic league?

Domestic provisions - A team that qualifies for the SL playoffs could be playing 17 games in Europe a year. With this in mind, it might be worth easing "congestion" by either lowering the domestic leagues to no more than 18 teams, or having them enter the domestic cup two rounds later. Or maybe the SL could simply start around the time of qualifying for UCL and EL.

I think the above method would make for a competitive competition, with little chance of teams fielding weakend line-ups due to them all likely having something to play for throughout.

The "elite" would get their opportunity for continuous games against each other, while the domestic league should take little-to-no impact due to the schedule being similar to that of the CL.

The CL and UEFA Cup remain prestigious as not only are they a significant trophy, they grant access to the SL. The removal of the big dogs could also serve to make the CL a more diverse competition and may even give a few of the smaller teams some space to grow.

If this were to happen it would replace the CL. Europe's big teams want to play big teams every week. My idea is as follows

3 tiered league structure

24 teams per league
2 games against each opponent-46 games
top eight teams qualify for playoffs
2-game aggregate series-1 vs 8, 2 vs 7, etc
Final held at a neutral location

4 teams relegated and promoted every year
Pro/Rel playoffs but i didn't think that far

4 teams are also relegated from the 3rd league
Each association is assigned a certain amount of spots based on performance and re-assigned every 5 years.
If a team is relegated from the 3rd league, then the champions the domestic league in that association would be promoted.
For example: if liverpool were relegated from the 3rd league and Newcastle won the english league that year, then Newcastle would be promoted. let's say that both liverpool and tottenham were relegated, the Newcastle and the runners-up, lets say Everton, would both be promoted.

24 teams per league
2 games against each opponent-46 games
top eight teams qualify for playoffs
2-game aggregate series-1 vs 8, 2 vs 7, etc
Final held at a neutral location

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I think 46 games might be fine for English clubs, but clubs in Portugal's Liga Sagres play 30 games per season. If a Portuguese club went from the Champions League Playoff Round to the Europa League final under the current format (by losing in the Champions League Playoff Round or finishing third in the Group Stage), it would play 47 games between Liga Sagres and Europe excluding domestic cup games, and playing that many games is unlikely. Under your format the club would play at least 46 games and up to 51. With 46 league games, several midweek matchdays would be needed, which compete with domestic cup games including the English FA Cup which plays on the weekend but may need to play replays midweek. I also don't think 72 clubs should be competing entirely in Europe. England has 9 of the top 72 in the UEFA coefficients for 2007-2008 through 2011-2012 and their league would be very diluted without those clubs.

Why would you have playoffs to decide the title? You've already got a balanced schedule and a long season, so the team that finishes #1 would be a more worth Champion IMO.

Also, how would the reassigment work if you're relegating teams back into the domestic league?

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The clubs will still want a final in this format, like in the champions league, it's a huge draw around the world. I also thought i would put an american twist on it.

As for the re-assignment. Let's say that france gets 5 spots in the league. Anytime one of their teams finishes in the bottom 4 four of the 3rd league, they are relegated to Ligue 1, then the champions of Ligue 1 is promoted. After 4 years, let's say france's teams don't do very well and they lose a spot. After that year, the worst performing french team is relegated to Ligue 1, and no one is promoted. If a french team finishes in the bottom 4 then they, along with the next worst performing french team are relegated and the champion of Ligue 1 is promoted. If scotland has 1 spot but get's a second spot because of good performances, and to account for france losing a spot, the champion of the SPL is automatically promoted, if the scottish team finishes in the bottom 4, the the top two teams in the SPL are promoted.

I think 46 games might be fine for English clubs, but clubs in Portugal's Liga Sagres play 30 games per season. If a Portuguese club went from the Champions League Playoff Round to the Europa League final under the current format (by losing in the Champions League Playoff Round or finishing third in the Group Stage), it would play 47 games between Liga Sagres and Europe excluding domestic cup games, and playing that many games is unlikely. Under your format the club would play at least 46 games and up to 51. With 46 league games, several midweek matchdays would be needed, which compete with domestic cup games including the English FA Cup which plays on the weekend but may need to play replays midweek. I also don't think 72 clubs should be competing entirely in Europe. England has 9 of the top 72 in the UEFA coefficients for 2007-2008 through 2011-2012 and their league would be very diluted without those clubs.

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I think you may be right. Perhaps 3 leagues of 20 would be better for scheduling. There could also be a cap on the number of teams per association.

Why would you have playoffs to decide the title? You've already got a balanced schedule and a long season, so the team that finishes #1 would be a more worth Champion IMO.

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A playoff would kind of be necessary otherwise teams near the top would have nothing to play for unless they were in the actual title -race.

Anyway, a 3-tiered super-league would never work. In the example presented above, I can't imagine Newcastle & Everton fans being too fond of leaving their domestic rivals for an indefinite period of time just so they could play in the 3rd-division of some Euro league. Plus who would watch a 3rd division match between Newcastle v Gençlerbirliği or whatever?

Any super-league would have to be 1-tier so that its so elite/prestigious that the benefits of playing in it offsets not playing your local rivals. Even then its a stretch.

Well, the CL group-stages have been very competitive the last couple of years (contrary to what nostalgic whiners want to believe). But I get your point. It certainly doesn't need to be any longer than six matches.

Thank goodness there was no Internet in 1955. Hordes of stick in the mud football fans would have rallied agaisnt this newfangled idea of a Cup for Champions of every league to determine the European supremacy. The death of football! they would have claimed. Worst idea ever! Let us enjoy our tiny endogamic leagues! Who wants a European Cup? They only want more money!

Seriously:

We need ONE EUROPEAN FOOTBALL PYRAMID NOW! Not 50!

Start merging leagues! Merge them all into one! No more borders, no more "national" quotas, no more of this obsolete system!

Yesterday we saw the scam of the so-called "Europa League" in all its splendor! Why does football hates itself so much? What have we done to deserve that?

How do you fit thousands of teams into one league system that people will actually give a shit about?

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you don't, that's the beauty of it. you just disband or disenfranchise the clubs of hundreds of millions of fans who don't give a rat's ass for charsenal or real united, tear down their stadiums, and force feed them the Big Sky Tee-Vee Wunderleague at 40 euros a month.

the tears of gratitude are rolling down my cheeks already.

seriously, here in lyon we're living great times, with bunches of young academy players (lacazette, grenier, gonalons, benzia, umtiti, etc...) and one not so young (malbranque, back after a 10 year stint in the EPL), under a coach who also came out of our academy, played here for years during the days when we got promoted (and scored the first ever european goal of the aulas era), and he under an owner who is also a local... at season's start we were just happy to see a fun atmosphere in the club (and lower ticket prices for the EL than for the CL is also a nice thing) but now that we've clinched our EL group and are top of the league we're giddy as schoolboys. having more fun than any year since, say... the 5th... maybe even since the 4th title of the 7 straight. farca? manchester pity? they don't exist for us. PSG and their hundreds of millions? those asswipes only interest us on the two nights a year when we are going to KICK THEIR ASS!

the only football you can really love, the only football that's really yours, is the football that's happening right in your town. that you get to on the metro (or for me, on my bicycle), not on your satellite dish.

you don't, that's the beauty of it. you just disband or disenfranchise the clubs of hundreds of millions of fans who don't give a rat's ass for charsenal or real united, tear down their stadiums, and force feed them the Big Sky Tee-Vee Wunderleague at 40 euros a month.

the tears of gratitude are rolling down my cheeks already.

seriously, here in lyon we're living great times, with bunches of young academy players (lacazette, grenier, gonalons, benzia, umtiti, etc...) and one not so young (malbranque, back after a 10 year stint in the EPL), under a coach who also came out of our academy, played here for years during the days when we got promoted (and scored the first ever european goal of the aulas era), and he under an owner who is also a local... at season's start we were just happy to see a fun atmosphere in the club (and lower ticket prices for the EL than for the CL is also a nice thing) but now that we've clinched our EL group and are top of the league we're giddy as schoolboys. having more fun than any year since, say... the 5th... maybe even since the 4th title of the 7 straight. farca? manchester pity? they don't exist for us. PSG and their hundreds of millions? those asswipes only interest us on the two nights a year when we are going to KICK THEIR ASS!

the only football you can really love, the only football that's really yours, is the football that's happening right in your town. that you get to on the metro (or for me, on my bicycle), not on your satellite dish.

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Sure, but what would change in a European League? The Clubs won't relocate, most of the national leagues would still be conserved, perhaps some local rivalries might suffer but the same happens if one of the clubs gets relegated.
According to some 'fans' in here the 6th tier regional leagues must be the best thing ever. But curiously they all follow some big fish club near them...

At least a European Super league would level the playing field and we don't have to watch >300M revenue Clubs play against a <10M revenue Club

At least a European Super league would level the playing field and we don't have to watch >300M revenue Clubs play against a <10M revenue Club

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I read that when Blackpool was the in 2010-2011 EPL, the club spent so little money that the players washed their own uniforms. They got relegated due to their horrible defense and/or goalkeeping, but they were tied for 8th in goals scored so their offense wasn't a problem. I like that even clubs who get relegated can sometimes play well against elite clubs. Queens Park Rangers has 0 wins, 4 draws, and 9 losses, but two of their draws are against top five clubs Chelsea and Everton. In 2009-2010 Burnley got relegated but they beat Manchester United.
I also like following the Champions League qualifying rounds and seeing which champions of countries that are not good enough to have anybody start in the Group Stage reach the Group Stage from the qualifying rounds. Presumably Cyprus would have had no access to a Super League for 2011-2012 and APOEL wouldn't have had the chance to reach the Champions League Quarterfinals, two rounds farther than the top two clubs in the EPL table got.

I read that when Blackpool was the in 2010-2011 EPL, the club spent so little money that the players washed their own uniforms. They got relegated due to their horrible defense and/or goalkeeping, but they were tied for 8th in goals scored so their offense wasn't a problem. I like that even clubs who get relegated can sometimes play well against elite clubs. Queens Park Rangers has 0 wins, 4 draws, and 9 losses, but two of their draws are against top five clubs Chelsea and Everton. In 2009-2010 Burnley got relegated but they beat Manchester United.
I also like following the Champions League qualifying rounds and seeing which champions of countries that are not good enough to have anybody start in the Group Stage reach the Group Stage from the qualifying rounds. Presumably Cyprus would have had no access to a Super League for 2011-2012 and APOEL wouldn't have had the chance to reach the Champions League Quarterfinals, two rounds farther than the top two clubs in the EPL table got.

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They won games against Zenit, Porto and Lyon. If we assume a two tier super league á 20 teams and play-offs between the national league winners to determine promotions. Games between teams like APOEL and Porto/Zenit/Lyon will happen regularly.

you don't, that's the beauty of it. you just disband or disenfranchise the clubs of hundreds of millions of fans who don't give a rat's ass for charsenal or real united, tear down their stadiums, and force feed them the Big Sky Tee-Vee Wunderleague at 40 euros a month.

the tears of gratitude are rolling down my cheeks already.

seriously, here in lyon we're living great times, with bunches of young academy players (lacazette, grenier, gonalons, benzia, umtiti, etc...) and one not so young (malbranque, back after a 10 year stint in the EPL), under a coach who also came out of our academy, played here for years during the days when we got promoted (and scored the first ever european goal of the aulas era), and he under an owner who is also a local... at season's start we were just happy to see a fun atmosphere in the club (and lower ticket prices for the EL than for the CL is also a nice thing) but now that we've clinched our EL group and are top of the league we're giddy as schoolboys. having more fun than any year since, say... the 5th... maybe even since the 4th title of the 7 straight. farca? manchester pity? they don't exist for us. PSG and their hundreds of millions? those asswipes only interest us on the two nights a year when we are going to KICK THEIR ASS!

the only football you can really love, the only football that's really yours, is the football that's happening right in your town. that you get to on the metro (or for me, on my bicycle), not on your satellite dish.

Click to expand...

This exactly, believe it or not there are more fans in England that DONT support the teams in the champions league than there are that do. Most fans in England dont give a 'rats a@se' if Manchester United or Chelsea win the Champions League (and I say that as a Chelsea supporter). A European superleague will allianate most English (and my guess is other Euro nations) fans and interest would soon die down. I would MUCH prefer to watch and have MUCH more interest in Charlton v Nottingham Forest than I would Lyon v Napoli, likewise I feel sure that a Frenchman would MUCH prefer Lyon v Marseill over Newcastle v Bayern Munich. Europe is very different to the USA because it is made up of very seperate countries, the Champions league works in its current format - a European Superleague would die a death.

This exactly, believe it or not there are more fans in England that DONT support the teams in the champions league than there are that do. Most fans in England dont give a 'rats a@se' if Manchester United or Chelsea win the Champions League (and I say that as a Chelsea supporter). A European superleague will allianate most English (and my guess is other Euro nations) fans and interest would soon die down. I would MUCH prefer to watch and have MUCH more interest in Charlton v Nottingham Forest than I would Lyon v Napoli, likewise I feel sure that a Frenchman would MUCH prefer Lyon v Marseill over Newcastle v Bayern Munich. Europe is very different to the USA because it is made up of very seperate countries, the Champions league works in its current format - a European Superleague would die a death.

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That is all fine and good. But there are a lot of people who would prefer to watch Chelsea vs Bayern Munich than Chelsea vs Wigan Athletic

That is all fine and good. But there are a lot of people who would prefer to watch Chelsea vs Bayern Munich than Chelsea vs Wigan Athletic

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Only Chelsea and Bayern fans (in the UK and in Germany) more English fans would have an interest in Chelsea v Wigan premiership game because it would be a Premier league fixture which means it would have a bearing on and interest fans of other teams around Wigan and Chelsea. Same thing in Germany too - the point is that more fans in Europe have a greater interest in their domestic leagues than they do in the Champions league because the domestic leagues have FAR more support in total than just the Champions league clubs.

Only Chelsea and Bayern fans (in the UK and in Germany) more English fans would have an interest in Chelsea v Wigan premiership game because it would be a Premier league fixture which means it would have a bearing on and interest fans of other teams around Wigan and Chelsea. Same thing in Germany too - the point is that more fans in Europe have a greater interest in their domestic leagues than they do in the Champions league because the domestic leagues have FAR more support in total than just the Champions league clubs.

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The EPL doesn't get those massive TV deals because some Englishmen follow their local teams on Sky Sports or go to the stadiums once a week